


Social Studies

by torigates



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-10
Updated: 2012-02-10
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:32:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one ever actually <i>taught</i> Wally how to be a superhero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Social Studies

 

 

 

  
No one ever actually _taught_ Wally how to be a superhero. His progression from normal teenage boy to Speedster went something like this: idea, execution, explosion, superhero.

After that he just kind of figured things out as he went along. Sure, Barry was there to help, and he did. Wally couldn’t even ever imagine how some heroes figured everything out on their own. Maybe it helped that Barry wasn’t a teenager when he got his powers. Or maybe it didn’t. Maybe Barry spent a lot of time crashing into walls in the beginning and waking up startling, achingly hungry in the night, feeling like his stomach was going to cave in on itself.

Maybe those things happened to Barry too. Wally doesn’t know because he could never bring himself to ask.

Then he got to meet a bunch of other young superheroes, and that was pretty cool, even if Robin had been doing the whole Boy Wonder thing since he was prepubescent and probably didn’t have any trouble with the whole lifestyle, and Roy was practically _eighteen_ already, and Kaldur, well nothing ruffled his feathers (gills?). But still, it was nice to know he wasn’t alone in figuring out the whole superhero life and balancing it with going to school, even if he sometimes felt like he was.

Wally was excited to join the Justice League, or at least be invited inside HQ. He thought--maybe--once he was inside it would pull back the curtain so to speak. He’d see he wasn’t the only one floundering (no offense, Kaldur) around trying to find his feet as a Superhero.

It didn’t really work out that way. Still, Batman formed their “Junior Justice League,” and even though Wally couldn’t really think those words without hearing them in Roy’s sneering tone, he kind of thought it was pretty awesome what they were doing together.

Plus, Conner was newer to Superhero game than Wally, so that helped. Hell, he was newer to the whole human (er, sorta) thing than anyone, even if he did have a freakishly large amount of knowledge on random topics. On top of that, M’gann was new to _Earth_. Wally liked showing them the ropes, it made him feel better about blundering around, and the more he showed the two of them, the steadier on his own feet he began to feel.

There was something surreal to seeing a bunch of super powered kids hang out together, but Wally liked it. Plus, the kitchen at Mount Justice was always better stocked than his mom’s, and Wally felt less guilty eating on Batman’s dime.

Then Artemis happened, and Wally felt like the rug was yanked out from underneath him all over again. He wouldn’t say that meeting Artemis was as bad as being _blown up_ , but that was pretty much how being around her made Wally feel. He was walking around in a daze, unsure on his feet. If Wally couldn’t trust his feet to get him places, then he really didn’t have much going for him, superhero or not.

 

 

 

+

 

 

 

Wally arrived to an empty cave. It was unusual, but not impossible that he’d be the only one here. Mostly everyone gathered after school, or whatever under water equivalent of school Kaldur had to attend. Wally wondered briefly where everyone was, but quickly distracted himself in the kitchen, putting together what was shaping up to be the world’s greatest sandwich. When he was done he grabbed a bag of chips and a gallon of milk out of the fridge. And two apples. Normally he’d pour himself a glass, but there was no one around to judge him if he drank the entire gallon in one go. So.

He wandered into the TV room and turned it on, not bothering to pay attention to what was on the screen as he methodically devoured his sandwich, the entire bag of chips and most of the milk. He was about to start on the apples (apples and milk together tasted nasty, so he was considering whether or not he wanted to finish the milk first) when Conner and M’gann walked in.

“Hey, Wally!” M’gann said, a genuine smile on her face.

“Hey beautiful,” he said with a grin. “Supey,” he said turning to face Conner who nodded in greeting. “You look lovely today too,” Wally said. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch.”

Conner looked menacing, but M’gann just laughed, so Wally figured he was probably fine not to get up.

They sat down together on the other side of the room, squished into the loveseat. It was kind of adorably disgusting, and Wally tried not to make a face. Instead, he gulped down the rest of the milk.

“How was your day, Wally?” M’gann asked after a moment.

He shrugged. It wasn’t worth talking about the detention he nearly got for falling asleep in English class (managed to charm is way out of that one, though sometimes Wally thought his life would be a lot easier if Batman would just agree to writing him notes for missing class, because seriously who was going to argue with a note from _Batman_?), or the jackasses in his P.E. class that thought making fun of the scrawny redhead was hilarious, or the fight he nearly got into after class (must not use powers for evil, must not use powers for evil). Instead he just said, “It was fine. How was your day, Meg?”

M’gann started talking about how _fabulous_ her day had been, all the activities she had gotten up to at lunch and after school, and how much fun she and Conner were having volunteering.

Wally raised his eyebrows at Conner. The other boy just shrugged sheepishly. Wally grinned. If he had a nickel for every time infatuation had talked him into doing something in which he otherwise would have had no interest, well he wouldn’t need to worry about getting into college, that was for sure because he’d already be a billionaire.

M’gann continued to talk. Occasionally she would turn to Conner to supply his opinion, and Wally would ask questions to keep the conversation flowing. After a while, he got up and went back into the kitchen, rummaging for something else to eat. He grabbed a stalk of celery and a jar of peanut butter and went back out to join his friends.

Robin had appeared sometime in the approximately thirty seconds Wally had been gone from the room. He hadn’t heard the voice announcing him. Robin was like that.

“Hey Rob,” Wally said.

Robin waved. He was settled on the end of the couch, feet kicked up on the coffee table. Wally had no idea how he always managed to look entirely nonchalant. It was completely unfair.

Wally sat down on the other side of him, unscrewed the lid of the tub, and scooped some peanut butter onto the end of the celery stick.

“That’s gross,” Rob said.

“What?” Wally asked. “I’m hungry.”

M’gann turned her attention on Robin, demanding to know what he had done with his day. Considering how few facts Rob could actually share, he managed to make an entertaining story for the group, and by the time he was done Kaldur had shown up.

Robin began idly flicking through the channels on television. Wally had spent a considerable amount of time in the cave, but even he had barely made a dent in the number of channels the Justice League seemed to get on the cable package. He wondered idly if there was some kind of discount for superheroes, and if so how he could go about setting it up at home. He shook his head, him mom would probably never go for that. She had a hard enough time trying to get him to do his homework as it was.

They settled into a companionable silence. Robin stopped cycling through the channels and settled on an episode of _Hoarders_.

“Really, dude?” Wally asked.

Robin just shrugged.

M’gann leaned forward. “What _is_ this?” she asked.

Robin launched into a full and detailed explanation of the show and the phenomenon. M’gann, Kaldur, and Conner listened with looks on their faces ranging from fascinated to horrified. Wally continued to eat his celery and peanut butter.

“Are you seriously eating that peanut butter straight out of the jar?”

Wally almost choked on his mouthful. He looked up to see Artemis standing over him. He hadn’t heard her come in either. Either he was getting sloppy or he needed to stop hanging out with so many goddamn ninjas.

“No,” he said, trying to sound indignant. “I’m using this celery as a very handy spoon. Want some?” he asked, holding it out to her.

“No,” she said, but she looked half-tempted. Wally wasn’t about to try and convince her. The offer was on the table.

He shrugged and went back to eating. “Why are we watching _Hoarders_?” she asked, sitting on the couch next to him. He moved over to make more room for her.

“Don’t ask me. Rob’s a fan and he has successfully converted all the nonhumans in the room to his cause.”

Artemis rolled her eyes while somehow looking fond. “It’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for humanity, is it?”

Wally laughed.

They sat side by side, their shoulders touching. Eventually Artemis leaned forward and grabbed the celery off the table, pulling it into her lap, and scooping some peanut butter out of the jar.

Wally gave her a look.

She bit off the end of her stalk, and raised an eyebrow, daring him to say something. Suddenly, his mouth was dry, and he couldn’t remember why it had felt like he won something between them just moments ago. She was still chewing, and Wally willed himself not to look at her mouth.

“So where were you?” he asked, desperate for a change of subject.

She shrugged, and scooped more peanut butter out. “Around,” he said.

“Ah,” Wally said nodded. “Around, of course. I should have thought of that.”

She rolled her eyes and punched him in the shoulder. He refrained from bringing his hand up to cover the spot. Barely.

“None of your business, nosy. I don’t have to tell you were I am all the time.”

He held up his hands. “Sorry, sorry,” he said.

She leaned back against the couch, and Wally did the same. Their shoulders, sides, and knees were touching. Wally tried to think about other things. Food, the crazy people on _Hoarders_ , anything besides Artemis pressed up against him. After a moment she drew her feet up underneath her body, and pressed closer to Wally. Purely accidentally, he was sure.

He tried and failed not to blush.

When the episode was over, Robin tossed the remote over to Conner. He started flickering through the channels at lighting pace. Wally could barely even register an image, but knowing Superboy, he probably not only knew what everything was, but also knew the episode as well. Either that or he just liked the colours.

“Anyone want pizza?” M’gann asked.

All eyes turned to Wally. “Well, duh,” he said.

Artemis laughed quietly beside him. He could feel her body shake with it. M’gann reached out her hand, and the phone came flying in through the other room. In a minute someone would have to get up and wait for the pizza outside, and it was probably going to be him. The whole “you’re the fastest” argument was one that he couldn’t really refute (it turned out Batman was _crazy_ strict about anyone having food delivered to the cave. Wally found that one out the hard way), but for right now Wally felt pretty nearly perfectly content.

Times like these it was easy to forget about the superhero stuff, at least for a little while. It didn’t really matter that at any moment Robin was likely to start hanging from the rafters, and Kaldur sometimes got weird when anyone put a glass of water in front of him, or that M’gann still sometimes needed to be reminded to keep her feet on the ground when she walked, or that Conner’s closest friend was a weird robotic ball. When it came down to it, they weren’t that different from any group of teenagers hanging out, having a pizza.

Wally loved fighting crime. He loved making a difference, and he loved being a hero (he had better, considering he brought the whole lifestyle on himself). He loved everything about his life as Kid Flash, but it was also overwhelmingly and terrifyingly huge. Wally got lost in that, sometimes. It was nice to have the reminder that even when he was getting detention, or bullied, that this part, at least, was easy.

Artemis stretched beside him, her arms reaching out towards the ceiling and exposing a thin sliver of skin between her belt and the hem of her shirt. She pressed closer, and Wally fought down another blush.

It was _easier_ , in any case (and Wally defied _anyone_ who had to try and decipher Artemis to tell him it was simple, but with her right up against him it was hard to care).

The rest, well. He’d figure out the superhero stuff as he went along.


End file.
